The document discusses research conducted to understand user experiences on Yelp and identify opportunities for improvement. Researchers recruited participants and had them complete diary entries and tasks on the Yelp website, which was observed. Findings showed users struggled to add photos, the homepage had too much content, and new users found it difficult to use. Recommendations included simplifying the design, improving how friends are connected, and providing tutorials for new users. The overall recommendation was to build upon the research findings and user feedback to create a more dynamic website and consistent mobile experience.

1. YELP: CREATING A BETTER REVIEW

2. Executive Summary
Our goal throughout this research has been to
identify the strengths and weaknesses behind
the users’ experiences and to discover
opportunities for improvement.
By conducting user research before the
redesign, we will prevent costly errors. This
resource of background data can provide Yelp
with rich insight into their client base.
In this presentation we will look at the
following:
• How participants were recruited
• Research methods used
• How data was collected
• Analysis data we’ve received from our
studies
• Our findings
• Our recommendations

3. Business Goals
We’ve been through the site and have compiled a
list of what we believe are relevant business
goals for Yelp’s website and its mobile
platform:
➤ Create a better experience for Yelp users.
➤ Generate more money by offering ad space to
local businesses.
➤ Create a better recommendation platform.
➤ Get Yelp users to use event and list pages more
efficiently.
➤ Create a platform for more social interaction
and engagement between friends.
➤ Create more engagement between business
owners and the users.

4. RESEARCH METHODS USED
➤ Diary Study
This research method requires users or observers of users to keep track of activities or events in the
form of a diary or log.
➤ Benefits to using this type of study are:
➤ It allows users to record their findings without having an observer watching over them
➤ The user experience on the Yelp website can be gathered over an extended period of time.
➤ Types of Diary Studies:
➤ Unstructured Diary Study - Participants report on everyday activities.
➤ Structured Diary Study - Participants report on everyday activities with more specific questions.
➤ Usability Test - Participants complete specific tasks and report on results.
➤ Problem Report - Participants report on everyday activities and identify bugs or experience problems.

5. RESEARCH METHODS USED
➤ Usability Study
Researchers will evaluate a product or service ( the Yelp website) by testing it with a representative set of users. In
these tests users complete tasks while the researcher observers them and takes notes.
➤ Types of Usability Studies:
➤ Learn in real time how the website works for users.
➤ Get user feedback as soon as the study is over.
➤ Types of Usability Studies:
➤ Problem Discovery - The goal of this test is to uncover and fix as many usability problems as possible.
➤ Benchmark - Benchmark studies are often called summative studies. A benchmark study assess how much the
user has learned.
➤ Competitive Study - Measures the Yelp website versus Yelp’s competitors.
➤ Eye-Tracking - Measures where users eyes are drawn in a design and the sequence of gaze panthers.
➤ Learnability - Measures how users learn. By giving users the same set of tasks to complete we will measure the
learning curve of the Yelp website.

6. ➤ To recruit participants for our research study,
an email screener was created to select our
participants.
Once the selected participant click on the link,
they were asked to complete a questionnaire
about their experience with the Yelp website.
To entice people to click on the link we
offered free meals ( a value of $100) as long
as they agreed to complete a review on the
website
We selected a diverse group of individuals
from new users to yelp experts.
Once we had our participants we asked them
to send us their reviews.
Recruitment

7. Data Collection
➤ After each meal we had users record an entry
into their diary.
➤ Once we received their diary of entries we
scheduled time with each user to observe
them using the Yelp website.
➤ We gave each users 5 tasks to complete:
1. Create a login on the yelp website.
2. Using the search bar, find the restaurant that you chose to review.
3. Write a review about the restaurant and include any photos you
took.
4. Find your friends, read and comment on their Yelp reviews.
5. List anything that you would consider distracting on the website.

8. DATA ANALYSIS
TO SUMMARIZE THE DATA FROM
MY RESEARCH STUDIES I WILL:
➤ Use graphs to illustrate my findings.
➤ Record user responses on things they
liked about using the Yelp website.
➤ Record user responses on things they
disliked about using the Yelp website.
➤ Report my findings.
➤ And offer recommendations.

9. FINDINGS
➤ All users completed tasks but in various times. While Participants 1 and 2 finished within 5 minutes of
each other. Participants 3 and 4 took the most time to finished their reviews.
➤ Participant 3 had a hard time with adding photos to to his reviews.
➤ Participant 4 got distracted by reading on the articles in the news section of the website.
➤ All participants 1-3 had a hard time adding photos to their reviews. No one new that photos could be
added automatically. Each spent time looking for the section “upload a photo”
➤ Participant 1 noticed the add a photo option but it’s small in comparison to the write a review button.
➤ Participant 2 didn't confirm his address so he couldn't add a photo until he did that however he could
still write a review.
➤ Participant 3 is new to Yelp and couldn't figure out how to use the system. He made a comment
wishing there was a tutorial for new users.
➤ Content was another subject will all participants. Participants 1 and 4 liked how the website was laid out.
While participants 2 and 3 felt that the homepage was too content heavy.

10. SOLUTIONS
Issue: Participant 4 got distracted by reading on the articles in the news section of the website.
When it comes to the overall layout, I agree with Participant 4 in that it’s quite busy. There are too many links that will lure
users to a section of the site they aren’t even particularly looking for.
Solution
Simplify the design by removing distracting side navigation. For instance, the “Today in Talk” section is all about what’s
going on in the news, but what does that have to do with reviews on local businesses?
Issue: Connecting Facebook to Yelp.
There should be a better way of adding friends on the Yelp website. As it currently stands, when you connect your Facebook
account to your Yelp account it sends friend requests to all of your friends instead of simply adding them to your friends page.
Solution
When users connect their Facebook page to their Yelp page, friends should be immediately connected instead of requiring users
to send out friend requests. They’ve done it once, should they be required to do it again?

11. SOLUTIONS
Issue: Seeing Friend Reviews
There’s not an easy way to find out which restaurants a user’s friends have visited nor to find and read their
reviews.
Solution
When you log into the Yelp website, you should automatically see what your friends have done recently instead
of seeing what’s just happened near you. This is a social website and it should start with friends and their
experiences first.
Issue: How to use Yelp.
Yelp believes that users know how to use the website. While this is true for existing users, new users will find it
hard to navigate the website.
Solution
Give users the option to learn how to use the website instead of assuming that they already know what they’re
doing.

12. Final Recommendation
Build the Website
Take all the testing into consideration with user feedback
and we can build a more dynamic website that users will feel
comfortable using.
We also recommend taking a look at the company’s SEO
plan to make sure that our new design works with what’s
already been done. If not, let’s work together to build a
better SEO campaign.
Build the Mobile Application
After working on the Yelp website, we recommend applying
the same tactics on the mobile application We can make sure
that the look, feel, and brand messaging is consistent on both
platforms.